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Mexico, France, Netherlands · 2007
2h 16m
Director Carlos Reygadas
Starring Cornelio Wall, Miriam Toews, Maria Pankratz, Peter Wall
Genre Drama, Romance
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In a Mexican Mennonite colony, Johan is cheating on his wife with another woman, threatening his place in his conservative community. Tormented by his own guilt, he confesses his affair, but he does not stop, nor does he leave his wife who still loves him.
Reygadas' typically arresting widescreen visuals and the presence of non-pro actors speaking in German-derived Plautdietsch makes for an initially hypnotic combination, but the spell breaks its hold well before the end of the picture's inflated running time, signaling an endurance test for all but the most ascetic arthouse auds.
It's amazingly beautiful and it tests your patience; both things are par for the course with Reygadas, After that, you've either surrendered to his idiosyncratic sense of rhythm, or you're out of there.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
This director is too calculating to hold our trust for long, and skepticism will kill transcendence every time.
The results are extraordinary. As understated as it is, the movie is both deeply absurd and powerfully affecting.
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
Reygadas has hitched his austere and protracted style to an allegorical tale of subtle strength and depth.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
Much of what happens in Silent Light can feel painstakingly mundane: milking cows, harvesting wheat, a long drive at night in and out of shadows. Yet throughout, there's a sense of something ominous impending, and while it remains gentle, the ending is genuinely startling.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
The film was written, directed and somehow willed into unlikely existence by the extravagantly talented Carlos Reygadas, whose immersion in this exotic world feels so deep and true that it seems like an act of faith.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The stab at sublimity-by-proxy doesn't take.
At bottom, Silent Light is less about faith than matters of the heart, and in Reygadas' hands, the ache is bone-deep.
As is his custom, Reygadas uses a mostly nonprofessional cast; and, as expected, he draws remarkably realistic performances.
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